Competency-based pediatric disaster training.

Objective: To assess whether participation in a competency-based pediatric disaster educational curriculum increases participants' knowledge of how to manage pediatric disaster victims.

Design: Pretest/post-test intervention study.

Setting: Large, urban, academic tertiary hospital.

Patients/participants: Three hundred twenty-six clinical and nonclinical healthcare employees.

Main Outcome Measure: Pre-educational and posteducational intervention scores on a 30-item pediatric disaster test.

Results: Participants without prior pediatric disaster training had significant improvements between pre-educational and posteducational intervention test scores (p < 0.0001).

Conclusions: Our competency-based pediatric disaster educational intervention improved the knowledge of most attendees, the majority of whom infrequently care for pediatric patients. This set of pediatric disaster competencies can be used in future formulation of a standardized curriculum.